Hi Retro Grouch,

I'm not sure if it's appropriate to mention the manufacturer's name on this forum, so let me just say that it's an American company that manufactures recumbent bikes. While they outsource the framebuilding of virtually all of their other models to Taiwan(and have for some time), they've brought the framebuilding processes back in-house here in America for this particular model(my bike). I've been told that they made this decision based on some quality control issues that they were having with this frame in Taiwan.

When I brought the bike to my LBS to have them take a look at the bb(and hopefully fix a minor problem), the mechanic initially thought that the bb shell had Italian threading. But, as he finished removing it, he determined that the bb(a Truvativ Isis bb) seemed to be installed backwards, as was the bb shell. He advised me to contact the manufacturer to ask them if the bb shell was welded into the frame in this orientation on purpose, or if it was, in fact, a goof-up on their part. And, if so, if I needed to have them take care of it. So I emailed the manufacturer and cc'd the dealer that I purchased the bike from. The manufacturer emailed me back, saying that they had just recently discovered that a number of my bike's particular model had been shipped out from their warehouse with the bb's reversed. That's when they suggested that the simple solution, "since friction loads are low, and the shifting's not affected by this", would be to remove the bb, and then re-install it with an application of green
loctite. They then assured me that the frame carried a lifetime warranty with the original purchaser(me), and that, if I decided at a later time that the "simple solution" was no longer satisfactory, they would provide me with a return tag to send the bike back to them, and they would either correct the bb shell problem(remove the old shell and have a new one welded back in) or simply replace the frame with a new one.

Now, I'm no mechanic by any stretch of the imagination, so I simply couldn't tell you if I wasn't given straight facts by the manufacturer. I'm only going by what my LBS mechanic told me(and I've trusted him for years with all of my family's bikes) and what the manufacturer "confirmed".

At this point, I just want to have my bike fixed, and fixed the right way, so that I can count on enjoying it for many years to come. All bb goof-ups aside, this bike is a real joy and blast to ride and own! If the manufacturer offered me a full refund for the bike, to go out and buy something else, I would reject the refund in favor of just getting it fixed or replaced...I love the bike that much.